When my daughter saw this dish come from the oven, she said it looked like Beef Wellington. The idea was spot on, but this is about a rooster, not a bovine.
Breast of a coq in puff pastry
This recipe is based on things I had on hand and what I hoped would work. ON HAND:
Breasts of a large old rooster marinated in red wine for 48 hours. (Part of a Coq au vin i was preparing but not destined for the long braise of that recipe.)
Puff pastry that I had made for the Tourtière limousine.
Tomato paste with Italian spices.
Emmental (“Swiss”) cheese
Coq with elements of the marinade: red wine, fresh rosemary, bay leaf, thyme, garlic, celery, carrots.Breasts after 48 hours in the red wine marinade (in the refrigerator); split with emmenthal cheese inside).
The breasts of any fowl would work fine – chicken, turkey, Guinée hen or rooster, etc. I would suggest some kind of marinade. It doesn’t have to be the one I used. Lots of other flavor profiles are possible. A marinade is meant primarily to guarantee a moist and tender breast.
One recipe of quick puff pastry (Bruno Albouze) divided in thirds – I still have 1/3 left for another “something” to come.
With the breasts ready to be tucked away in their flaky, buttery bed, take the puff pastry from the fridge, roll it out (generously using flour to prevent sticking) and spread your paste all round, leaving the edges clean so that the pastry sticks together when folded. I used an herbal tomato paste. A pesto would also be an amazing choice.
After applying the paste (plus adding salt and freshly cracked black pepper), wrap each breast in the pastry. You should wet the edges of the pastry so that it holds together.Brush the pastry with an egg wash (one egg with yolk and white) and score with a knife with a design of your choice)
Place in a a preheated oven at 375-400 F / 200C. Check at about 20 minutes. Cover with foil and let bake 10 minutes more. Thirty minutes total should enough for this moist, buttery, flaky dish. It certainly was for us.
Menu: Tomates au basilique et l’huile d’olive, Coq en croûte, polenta. Wine? We had a Chardonnay but an Italian red would work well.
This is one variation of a traditional, savory dish in the Limousine region of France. It may be made with or without a layer of meat (pork) between two layers of potatoes and cream and the crust may be either a brioche or puff pastry. This tourtière is made with a puff pastry and a layer of ground pork between the sheets of potato.
Tourtière limousine
This is supposed to be peasant food. If peasants ate this well, count me in. Butter in a flaky crust, potatoes covered in cream, ground pork seasoned with shallots and a hint of garlic. [A Texan is probably thinking biscuits and gravy with pork sausage and potatoes on the side at this point.]
Why this recipe today? Well, I’ve been hungry to cook more, I had a very light breakfast, and I’ve been dying to use a bunch of the chives that have been thriving this summer.
Garden fresh chives
Let’s get to it: Ingredients
Puff pastry- one recipe according to this one by Bruno Albouze
1 egg (to use as egg wash)
750 g of potatoes (Yukon Gold might be the best option)
250 ml heavy cream (or a reduced fat cream but not milk)
300 g ground, unseasoned pork
Fresh chives – be generous; finely chopped
2 shallots or 1 medium white onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
Ground nutmeg – fresh is always best
(Sea)Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sausage et al.
Process: Puff pastry + 25 min prep other ingredients + 30-40 min baking
Make the “Quick Puff Pastry” – this takes a couple of hours. A good idea to make this a day or more in advance. Once this is done, this recipe comes together quickly and easily.
Quick Puff Pastry (Bruno Albouze)
The potatoes…
Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, peal and slice the potatoes into thin rounds (using a mandolin if you have one)
Place the potatoes in the boiling water for about 4 minutes. You want them partially cooked but slightly firm for the process to follow.
Meanwhile, in a small/medium sized bowl mix the cream, chives, nutmeg and salt (no black pepper) for the potatoes.
Drain the potatoes. In a larger mixing bowl, cover the bottom with the cream mixture, add some of the potatoes, then a bit more cream, more potatoes, the rest of the cream. [Why so fussy about this step? You want to evenly evenly coat the potato slices with the sauce without breaking them. This is how I did it.]
The ground pork….
Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat
Add the shallots; when translucent (don’t let them brown) add the garlic stirring frequently until fragrant.
Add the sausage meat, mix and stir until brown.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from heat.
Assembly required:
Grease (butter or oil) a 9” or 22 cm tart/cake pan that has sides of 1.5 to 2 inches.
Remove your puff pastry from the fridge
Divide the pastry 2/3 (bottom and sides) and 1/3 (top) and roll out as quickly as possible
Fit the bottom sheet in your pan and begin layering your ingredients…
1/2 of the potatoes, then all of the sausage, then the rest of the potatoes
Lastly….
Whisk the egg and brush the edges of the pastry to help seal the top to the bottom sheet.
Place the top sheet on the tourtière, trim any excess pastry and crimp the edges together.
Brush the entire surface with egg wash
Score the surface with a knife to create a design if you’d like to
Pierce the pastry in several places with a toothpick to let steam escape
Cut a small circle out of the center of the pastry to let steam escape
Place in your preheated oven at 190C or 375F for 35-40 minutes. Check on the tourtière at 30 minutes to make sure the crust is not over-browning. You may want to lay a piece of aluminum foil over it to protect the pastry. (I did.) At 40 minutes it should be done. Bring it out of the oven and LET IT COOL for at least thirty minutes before cutting into it. It needs this in order to hold together, for more steam to escape and for the cream to thicken.
A red Bordeaux wine is often suggested to pair with this. On this beautiful sunny day in France, I went with an inexpensive rosé and was not disappointed. Actually, after the first bite of that buttery crust, I couldn’t think about much else.À la prochaine.
Le Four de Sainte Anne à Chez Bonneau 